Sunjae

I stared down at her flustered expression, and a rare impulse to smile tugged at the corners of my lips.

There was something deeply intriguing about her. Her clumsy, unscripted reactions were incredibly endearing. She was a complete open book, her burning ears giving away every single emotion she was trying so desperately to hide.

For the first time in my life, I found myself actually reluctant to leave a room.

"Is that all?" I asked, keeping my voice as stern as possible. She nodded and gestured for me to leave with an awkward smile.

Once I had shut the door behind me and stepped into the hallway, my phone buzzed with Taeho's message: We have a huge problem. We need to meet up, now! I'm inside your place.

I let out a sharp sigh of frustration. I had fully expected this fallout. The news of my rejection had undoubtedly been delivered to my grandfather in the worst, most dramatic way possible.

Running my fingers through my hair, I shoved the phone back into my pocket and made my way down to the car.

The large grey doors of my apartment clicked shut behind me, the sprawling, minimalist space feeling entirely too quiet despite the brewing crisis.

I walked past the hallway, finally spotting Taeho pacing back and forth with a dead serious expression on his face as he muttered into his phone. The moment he heard the clatter of my keys on the console table, he whipped his head toward me and practically dashed across the room.

"What on earth did you do at the restaurant?!" he demanded, looking utterly stressed as his phone began to vibrate violently in his hand yet again. It was undoubtedly the PR team.

"Chairman Lee's secretary just called. He said the news of your rejection was delivered to your grandfather in the most toxic way possible. According to them, you rejected Chaewon because you're apparently already married to someone else!"

Ignoring the panic, I walked into the open kitchen and poured myself a glass of bottled water. I then moved over to the living room and sank into the couch, with Taeho following closely on my heels, still desperately trying to deliver the news.

Don't get it twisted, this wasn't Chaewon's doing. She was mischievous and persistent, but not malicious.

I knew exactly who had twisted the narrative. My stepmother had been relentlessly poisoning my grandfather's mind against me ever since she forced her way into this family. She had deliberately stayed close to Chaewon's mother just to ensure she would be the first to hear about my every move.

It was no shocker that she was the one to weaponize this rejection against me.

"They're calling an emergency board meeting for Monday morning," Taeho continued, "The PR team is working overtime to make sure the rumors don't leak to the press. What on earth is going on, Sunjae?"

"They're not entirely wrong," I started calmly.

Taeho arched his brows in utter confusion. "What do you mean?..." Suddenly, the realization clicked, and his eyes widened in sheer disbelief. "Don't tell me... You actually went through with it? You asked Ms. Kim to marry you?!"

"I did," I replied, casually dropping the sleek black folder onto the coffee table.

He speed-walked over, his hands trembling slightly as he snatched it up.

"And she... she actually agreed?!" he asked, a subtle, sharp sting of panic in his voice as he scrambled to rip the folder open.

I smirked, taking a slow sip from my glass as I watched his expression fall. "As of tonight, I am officially a married man."

The moment he saw her neat signature at the bottom of the page, he froze. Then, he slowly raised his head, looking at me as if I had turned into a ghost.

"Have you lost your mind?!" He paused, pacing away as he aggressively pushed his hair back. "Has Ms. Kim lost her mind, too?!"

After a moment, he stopped pacing and walked up to me, "What were you thinking?!"

Sighing, I placed my glass down on the table and calmly laid out my calculated strategy to him. I reminded him that as the CMO, my job wasn't to please my grandfather, it was to dictate the market. I explained how my grandfather might try to strip away my title, but the board couldn't legally touch me if the profits spoke for themselves.

I told him about Elyvion's upcoming campaign. A stunning Blasian woman as the face of modern Korean heritage would spread like wildfire across the globe. It would completely disrupt the industry, driving unprecedented sales straight into the US, European, and African markets.

My lips curled into a slow, confident smile. "I don't need my grandfather's blessing or a marriage to Chaewon to secure the Hwaon Group, Taeho. The numbers alone will force the board to name me successor. I can do it entirely on my own."

After I finished explaining, Taeho let out an exaggerated sigh. "What on earth is going on with you?" he asked, completely unimpressed by my calculated strategy.

I furrowed my brows.

"Why would you marry someone you've only known for a week?!" he demanded. "You didn't even consult me first."

"Did you not hear a single thing I just said? You knew I was interested in her from the start, and you still went ahead and married her?! Now, you’re telling me she's just a strategic business partner after observing her for a mere week?

I took a deep breath, rising to my feet to face him. "Yes-"

"I don't think so," he snapped. "Did you really decide to marry her just because of that campaign? That makes absolutely no sense to me at all."

He marched right up to me, locking his eyes onto mine. He was absolutely furious, making my frown deepen. It was glaringly obvious that this wasn't even about my corporate strategy anymore.

He demanded again, "Why did you impulsively marry her?"

I clenched my jaw tight. "I wasn't being impulsive."

Taeho scoffed. His usually bright, doe eyes narrowed into a hard, straight line, completely drained of the cheerful light they usually held. "You coincidentally bumped into her at your favorite restaurant, and then she coincidentally ended up working at the exact local store branch you transferred to just to escape headquarters? What if she's one of your stepmother's spies? It looks like way too much of a coincidence to me."

My jaw tensed to the point of aching as I held his heated glare.

"I think you're being played," he spat.

I clenched my fists as we stood toe to toe, the air in the room turning dangerously cold. Neither of us wanted to back down. This was the first time in years that he had ever looked at me with such genuine venom.

All because of a single woman.

Deciding to be the better man, I backed down and broke eye contact with a heavy sigh.

"She's not a spy."

"And you're so confident about that? Then how did the news spread that you're secretly married? Ms. Kim must have tipped off your stepmother!"

His accusation almost made me flinch.

"That part was a coincidence," I maintained, keeping my voice level.

His lips curled into a mocking smile as he let out a dark laugh that turned the room even colder. "A coincidence? Did she cast a spell on you, Sunjae? You never believe in coincidences."

I paused, the accusation hanging heavily in the air as I pondered his words.

Taeho wasn't entirely wrong; on the surface, this looked like way too much of a coincidence. However, he didn't know the full picture. He hadn't seen the raw spectacle on the street, or how her ex-boyfriend had ruthlessly shattered her heart over a decade-long friendship. Even if my stepmother was capable of orchestrating an elaborate sob story, I... I just didn't believe Juri was a spy.

My gut refused to accept it.

And for the absolute first time in my life, I couldn't find a single piece of logical evidence to back up my own words.

Seeing how speechless I was, he scoffed again and stepped back.

"I just hope you have a backup plan for whatever pit you've dug for yourself," he shot back.

With that, he turned and left, leaving me standing there alone, desperately searching for a single logical way to prove my trust in her.